People
Peter Alpha Konteh
Profile
Rev. Fr. Peter Konteh, a Catholic priest with 30 years of priestly ministry, serves as Executive Director of Caritas Freetown, second vice president of the Regional Union of Diocesan Priests of West Africa, and president of Catholic priests in Sierra Leone. He is internationally respected for his three decades of frontline service during war, post-conflict recovery, and national development. Ordained in 1996, at the peak of Sierra Leone’s brutal 11-year civil war, he has served among internally displaced persons, with street children and squatters in the congested slums of Freetown, and with a country challenged by the Ebola and COVID-19 pandemics. He co-founded Sierra Leone’s Inter-Religious Council and played central roles in the peace talks between the Sierra Leonean government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) that halted the long civil war. During the war, he reported for the BBC and he continues his role as an active communicator. Among his many areas of contemporary action are child protection, drug addiction, care of orphans, fighting female genital cutting (FGC), and child marriage. His formation was at seminary in Sierra Leone, and he has a Bachelor’s degree in Sacred Theology and a Master’s in Development Studies. Father Peter has received numerous awards for his courageous service.